Eagles perform tour de force on Las Vegas Strip
The Kats! Bureau at this writing is Westgate Superbook. The book’s director, Jay Kornegay, was featured for like three seconds on the Vegas Golden Knights scoreboard screen at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday.
This is how you know you have lived in Las Vegas for a few moons.
We have made wagers on the NFL action at Kornegay’s haunt, but not on the Eagles of Philadelphia. We did, however, win with the Eagles of rock ’n’ roll on Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Hit after hit after hit.
In an era where superstars lop musicians to save money, the band cut no corners in its music production, lining up a 46-piece orchestra dotted with Vegas players, along with several members of the choir from the UNLV College of Fine Arts.
Loved the touch at the start of the show, a well-suited gent placing “Hotel California” on a turntable. Later a female counterpart dramatically flipped the disc after the band finished Side 1.
The Eagles’ catalogue and musicianship is so wide-ranging that Joe Walsh and Vince Gill can share the same setlist (the bemused look on Gill’s face as he strummed to Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good to Me” was priceless). The place was packed, the sound at the arena was exceptional — none of the echo so prevalent in Vegas arena shows — and the music superior.
I remember, years ago, Don Henley remarking in an interview with the London Daily Telegraph, “We don’t worry about the passage of time very much. We are fortunate because we play music that is not faddish; it is composed of time-honoured elements. Our style of dress is not trendy. We’ve never pranced around on stage; we’ve always just sort of loitered.”
No, the Eagles will never be mistaken for the Backstreet Boys. But wow, what a generous unspooling of classic contemporary music. More than three hours, with an intermission, all of it flawless. They can loiter here whenever they want.
Imagine this
Imagine Dragons headlined Rock in Rio in Brazil on Sunday night. Great gig, but too late for the hometown rockers to star in the festival in Las Vegas. We do remember the soaring plans to stage the event every other year at Las Vegas Festival Grounds. But the May 2015 event underperformed so badly that plans to return it to the Strip were scrubbed. According to the Rock in Rio original vision, the 2019 event would have been staged over the weekend, at LVFG.
Great Moments In Social Media
Art Spander, the great Bay Area sports columnist and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said of the press corps covering the Raiders-Bears game in London: “No paper from San Francisco, Oakland or San Jose (or Napa) sent a reporter or columnist to London to cover the Raiders. But the Las Vegas Review-Journal did.” The Bay Area is about over the Oakland Raiders …
What Works In Vegas
On the topic of zombies, “Zombie Burlesque” continues to lurch along at V Theater at Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. The show is set to mark its sixth anniversary in December and is the most underrated production in the city. Host Enoch Augustus Scott continues to enliven the gratefully dead characters. The show is wicked funny and filled with terrific music numbers, and has brains, too.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.